In Mario Bros. the objective is to rid the sewers of pests such as turtles, crabs and flies. The player controls one of the Mario Bros., Mario or Luigi, and has their character jump up and strike the platform one of the pests is on from below, flipping the pest over. The character can also jump up and hit the POW box, flipping over all pests on the screen at once. The player then has their character kick any flipped pests into the water below, then repeat the process until the level is clear.

Mario Bros. can be played by a single player or by two players simultaneously. In a two player game the players can choose to cooperate or compete with each other.

Mario Bros. was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi and produced by Nintendo in 1983.

At first glance Spy Hunter appears to be a driving game, but it soon becomes apparent that it’s actually more of a top-down shooter like Galaxian or Galaga. The player controls a sports car which is initially equipped with machine guns, and later acquires oil slick, smoke screen and missile capabilities by driving into the back of a weapons van while driving down the road at full speed. The player must evade and destroy enemy vehicles while avoiding any damage to civilian vehicles. The player’s car also transforms into a boat at times when the road meets a waterway, then transforms back into a car when necessary.

The game’s has a unique set of controls, consisting of a control yoke, a gear shift and an accelerator pedal. The control yoke has two triggers, two thumb buttons and a button to call the weapons van.

Spy Hunter is one of the few games I played in an arcade as a kid. A friend had his birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza, and each kid got a few tokens to play whatever they wanted in the arcade. I spent all my tokens on Spy Hunter, and it was worth it.

Spy Hunter was created by George Gomez, and features the Peter Gunn theme by Henry Mancini as it’s background music. The game was produced by Bally/Midway in 1983.

In Elevator Action the player controls “Otto” – Secret Agent 17. The player guides “Otto” through high-rise buildings, collecting secret documents from rooms with red doors and shooting what enemy agents he can’t avoid. “Otto” also has full control over the elevators when he is riding them, and he can use the elevators to squash any enemy agents who get in the elevator’s path. Once “Otto” has collected all the secret documents from a building he proceeds to the basement garage and escapes in his car.

The control scheme for Elevator Action is pretty basic – a four-way joystick, a fire button and a jump button. “Otto” can fire while standing or crouching, and he can jump to avoid enemy fire and to jump kick enemy agents.

You know, I’m really not impressed by most actors as human beings. They may be talented at portraying other people, but far too many of them are so wrapped up in themselves they can’t see anything else. Christian Bale seems to me to be one of the exceptions – a decent, down-to-earth guy who genuinely cares about other people. The world needs more actors – heck, more people – like him.